


Let's Dance

by Astuary_Queen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, M/M, Marauders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-20 12:35:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30004980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astuary_Queen/pseuds/Astuary_Queen
Summary: After Lily and James move in together, Remus Lupin is left without a roommate. Enter Sirius Black, James' brother who coincidentally, also needs a roommate. When Sirius suggests they go on a 3 week long road trip to break the ice before moving in, Remus decides to say "fuck it", and comes along. Chaos ensues.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Kudos: 4





	1. Life in the Parking Lot

Sirius Black had always known that he lived within a world of daydreams. His mother would always chastise him for it throughout his youth, and after he finally packed up his bags and got the hell out of Grimmauld, his daydreams took on a new life like never before. Hours upon hours were spent living within his own mind, following winding paths with fairytales wound into the words he created. 

As a child, the daydreams were a form of escapism for Sirius. The stories he would create would be the most outlandish tales of a life that he could only dream of living. When he had finally gotten out, he decided to follow a more realistic path with his stories. Daydreams that, now that he was no longer under the thumb of his nightmarish mother, he would be actually able to follow through with.

So, it’s no wonder that Sirius was here, now, sitting in his beat up 2012 VW Tiguan, a man he barely knew in his passenger seat, about to spend the next 3 weeks of his life living in a daydream. A cross country road trip seemed like the ultimate daydream. With a stranger no less, it was like he would be living in a film that people would continue to talk about for years to come. In this moment, through all the unfamiliarity that surrounded him, Sirius Black was content.

\---

Remus Lupin preferred to live in reality. To him, it was important to know that things were tangible, that it wasn’t some figment of his imagination. Sure, this made him a rather pessimistic child, harboring a hatred for Pixar films, but as he grew older, it gave him an eye for what was truly, honestly, beautiful. No mystical beings or mermaids to corrupt what was really there, and Remus loved to capture this moment of perfect actuality.

With this strange fixation of reality and the truth of living in the moment, it never surprised his parents when Remus stumbled across the old Pentax film camera hidden away in the attic. He became addicted to the raw, grainy feel of the photos, the long red-brown rolls of negatives that hid the secrets of the photos he had taken. Film was perfect for Remus. It captured the exact moment of living, and to him, that was all he needed.

So when his new roommate had asked him if he had any desire to come along with him on a 3 week long road trip, Remus didn’t hesitate to say yes. It would be the perfect opportunity to capture living in its purest essence. It didn’t hurt that Sirius Black was nice to look at and exuded a sort of essence of adventure. Remus was sure that regardless of where they went, Sirius would be the perfect subject of his photos.

\---

  
Lily and Remus had gone to the same summer camp as children, and coincidentally ended up at the same college (although, everyone from Camp Qualmie ended up at Western anyway). They had spent their freshman year in a run-down 2 bedroom apartment that was barely tall enough for Remus to even fit into it. But Lily had gone off and fallen in love with that man, James, that she was always rattling on about, and so it went. Remus had been left behind in the dirt.

Well, not really. Lily and James lived a few blocks away from Remus, but it was the first time that Remus had felt so alone. And then one night, Remus went over to Lily’s new place for dinner, when he had met Sirius, James’ best friend/brother who was “sick and tired of all of your Love, Actually bullshit, James!”. 

And so, again, here they were. Two semi-strangers, a moldy car, and a camera, ready to drive all the way to Bellingham from Philadelphia, where James and Sirius were from.

“So, where to first?” The words spilled out of Remus’ mouth, and he cringed internally at the cliché of it all. Spontaneous road trips with someone you barely know sounded like something out of a half-assed romantic comedy that Remus would hate-watch instead of going out and talking to people other than Lily Evans. It was, after all, Lily’s fault that the two boys were spending their first summer after freshman year in Sirius’s old, slightly moldy (although Sirius had assured him that it was still perfectly safe) car that took at least three tries to start.

Sirius grinned back at Remus, and Remus could almost hear the gears turning in his head. It would be a long three weeks.

“Well, my dear Remus” He began, grinning again at the scowl that had crossed Remus’ face at the nickname. “I was hoping you’d ask! To kick off, we’re heading on down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina!”

Remus blanched. He wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of the sun, if his pale complexion didn’t scream that in the first place. He was from Washington, after all. He just wasn’t built for a tan. 

“The Outer Banks? Where would we even stay? There can’t be good AirBnb’s there.” Cursing at his half-assed excuse, Remus grimaced.

“Good AirBnb’s!” Sirius barked with laughter. “Dude, we’re broke college kids. The bar is low enough already. But, since you asked oh-so politely, we’ll be staying at my Uncle’s summer home.”

Summer home. Well, looks like Remus really didn’t know what he was getting himself into with this whole new-roommate bonding road trip thing. Whatever. It’d be over in 3 weeks, and then they could just ignore each other.

“Yeah, alright. Let’s go” To hell with it. At least there will be good pictures to take.

“Hell yeah! The drive is about 7 hours, here, grab a DVD” Sirius passed him a large, black leather book that was chock full of DVDs. Carefully flipping through it, Remus grabbed OK Computer the moment he saw it, placing it on the DVD tray.

“Radiohead fan, huh?” Sirius smirked at him. “Didn’t peg you for the type, but everyone has their secrets. I lost the AUX cable a few months back, and just haven’t gotten around to replacing it yet. Maybe we can get one on the road.”

The car sputtered, grumbled, and finally set off. The road trip had begun.


	2. Day 1: Kicking Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus and Sirius begin to head down to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

They were somewhere in Delaware at this point. Sirius had asked for a change of music, so now they were, of course, listening to Tiny Dancer. Of course Sirius was a Sir Elton John fan. It was a fact that just made sense. 

“This is a three week long road trip. What are we going to do when we get sick of all the DVD’s? Or like, if we don’t feel like any of them” Remus began to voice his doubts when he was swiftly interrupted.

“Remus. First of all, there’s like a hundred DVD’s there. I think it’d be a feat of it’s own to get sick of every single one. And as for your other question, there will always be something in the book you feel like. It’s a part of its magic.” Sirius grinned at him proudly, a gleam in his eye.

The chorus kicked in and Remus couldn’t help but sing along. It was obligatory. A journalism major on the road with a rock star type singing along to Elton John, it was like his very own Almost Famous moment.

As if Sirius could read his mind, he paused his karaoke for a moment, “Have you seen Almost Famous?” He yelled over the music.

Remus huffed out a laugh. “Yeah! It was one of my favorite movies as a teenager!”

Sirius chuckled at this. “Yeah, I could see that. Is that where the whole journalism major thing came from? Or was that an established dream of yours before watching it. Man, we could like, recreate it! Journalist and rockstar taking on the world, one city at a time! You could even take photos and interview me!”

Overwhelmed was certainly a word that Remus could use to describe his feelings about the words that had just spilled out of the other boy’s mouth. Unable to think coherently, Remus stammered. “Rockstar?” managed to tumble out of his mouth. 

“But of course! I thought you’d be able to catch on, given the guitar in the backseat.”

Glancing back, there was in fact a guitar-shaped case in the backseat, next to the various backpacks, cameras, and luggage that the duo had managed to bring along with them.

“Shit man, I really didn’t notice did I? How long have you been playing?” Remus smiled, happy to welcome the possibility of live (to put it formally) music throughout these upcoming weeks.

There was a pleasant brightness to Sirius’ laughter. A twinkle, if Remus really wanted to get technical. Taking his eyes off the road for just a moment, Remus caught a glance of a pair of grey eyes. “About 5 years now? I taught myself for about a year, but then James insisted that I pick up with lessons if he had to listen to me play all the time. Anyway, we’ll be hitting Kitty Hawk at about 6 ish. You any good at cooking? We can swing by a Safeway or something.”

“Well,” Remus began, high pitched and awkward. “Cooking isn’t exactly my strong suit, I’d say. Some would even say it’s my weak suit.”

Again, with that bright, barking laughter. “Well, that would’ve been good to know, wouldn’t it. That’s alright, I’m a damn good cook anyway. Had to learn, you know, after living with James. No way in hell you can be any worse than him.”

Remus felt the smule that had begun to stretch across his face grow even wider when Blue Swede’s hooked on a feeling began to play. It didn’t matter anymore what Sirius would think, Remus began to sing along. Catching another glance of the grey eyes, Remus was happy to sit here, AC blasting in the thick July air, causing the car to feel stale and recycled. But it wasn’t a problem. Winding his camera up, Remus snapped his first picture. It was Sirius, grinning and singing along to the music. A great way to start what Remus was sure to be a series of wonderful photos to be taken.

That’s basically how the rest of the drive down to Kitty Hawk went. Singing along, casual conversation about their lives leading up to where they were before this moment. Sirius was born and raised in Philly, and he and James had been brothers since the first day they met. They went to Phillips Exeter, a fancy boarding school in the Northeast. But James had also hailed from PA, according to Sirius.

Remus shared his stories of growing up on Orcas Island, spending his time in a tiny island, with the same people, and by the time tourist season came around, he was off to Camp Qualmie over on another island closer to Seattle, where he had met Lily. 

“Summer camp kid, huh?” Sirius teased. “Did you have a funky nickname or anything? I heard from James that Lily was called Bambi, how about you?”

Remus cringed. The story behind his camp name wasn’t exactly a pleasant one. In fact, it was pretty embarrassing. “Moony,” he started. “My camp name was Moony.”

Sirius was quiet, waiting anticipatedly. 

“In my first year at camp, I may have flashed everyone at Council Fire. It’s this thing where everyone at camp sits on these logs, and two campers from every cabin come up and share their favorite memory from camp. I, being the very clever 8 year old I was, pulled down my pants. So when I turned 15 and became a CIT, Moony was the first name that Lily suggested.” 

Sirius began to wheeze with laughter. It was, after all, a pretty embarrassing story. “Moony! Oh god, that’s too good. Definitely not letting that one go.”

“Look man, camp’s a weird place! I mean, I still go back every summer and counsel, but it’s all PNW dipshits. That’s how I know so many people up at Western, anyhow” Remus was happy to share his stories now. Camp was his favorite place on the planet, and Sirius made it easy to share.

“Did you go this summer at all?” That question was a gimme. He did mention going every summer.

“Yeah, but just up until last week. Needed to prepare for moving and, well, this,” he gestured with his hands vaguely. “I’ll be back though. I always make sure to come back.”

Sirius smiled warmly, and they continued on with the road. Not too long after, they pulled into a long, wide driveway attached to what could only be described as an extravagant house. 

“Here we are! Welcome to Kitty Hawk, Remus Lupin!” Sirius smiled at him, turning off the car and welcoming the warm, humid air. 

Hopping out of the car and stretching his legs, Remus gazed up at the house towering over him. Sirius had begun to move around their luggage. “This place is certainly…” He started, unsure what adjective would be a proper descriptor.

“A lot? I know. It’s my uncle’s and he’s quite eclectic. You’ll see what I mean when we get inside” Sirius answered for him.

Dragging his luggage, Remus kicked off his Birks by the welcome mat, pushing open the door to where he’d be spending the next three days. Sirius was right. Eclectic was an understatement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Kitty Hawk! Hopefully I'll be able to update semi-frequently, but I guess we'll find out!

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go!


End file.
